


Golden Towers and Silver Keys

by SerStolas



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Old Kingdom Fusion, Angst, F/M, K-2SO as Mogget, Reunions, The dead - Freeform, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-30 00:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16275860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: Jyn Erso, last of the Royal Line and Separatist under Saw Gerrera since her mother was killed 13 years ago, has been sent by her foster father to find the Abhorsen, the one chance the kingdom may have to defeat Regent Krennic, and take the Kingdom back from the Dead.





	Golden Towers and Silver Keys

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a thought that K-2SO would make a great Mogget when I was re-reading Sabriel. Thank you if you've read this lunacy. It's supposed to be a one shot because working full time, family, and grad school doesn't leave a lot of writing time..but we'll see.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr @SerStolas

Her lungs burned as she ran. 

The sluggish speed of an early Spring River Ratterlin flowed beside her, offering as little comfort as the darkening, clouded sky. Jyn wished for rain.

Somewhere in the distance, back in the shadows of the forest, she could sense the dead lurking, waiting for her to slip, waiting for their chance to strike. Full night would come soon, and without cover, without the safety of swift, running water, her fate seemed certain. She was so tired, she could not trust that any diamond of protection she created would keep her safe.

She felt as if she'd been running for days. Her horse, throat slit to prevent it from giving strength to the dead, lay miles behind her. Her only hope, the Long Cliffs, the waterfall, and Abhorsen's house, lay miles head.

Jyn Erso knew that she had to make it to Abhorsen's house. Even if the rumors were not true, even of the Abhorsen had not returned to the House for the first time in a decade, the House offered protections that the Separatist camps she'd grown up in, and the open road now, could never offer.

She felt the bite of her sword's hit into her side as she ran, and remembered when Saw Gerrera had presented her with Petra, just days before, as she left the Separatist camp on one final mission for her foster father. The man had been her teacher and protector for the past thirteen years, since the day her mother had been killed by some greater Dead creature, since the day her father had pressed his eight year old daughter into Saw's arms and told him to run.

No one had ever thought the Dead would take the Palace. They'd never considered that her mother's advisor Krennic would betray them. To this day Jyn did not know if Krennic was a necromancer himself, or just the puppet of some greater power. What she did know was that since the day her mother, since the day Queen Lyra Erso, had been killed, the Old Kingdom had sunk slowly into darkness.

The fall seemed to be coming faster within the past few years. The Clayr remained sequestered in their Glacier, much to Jyn's bitter dismay, and the Separatists who had formed to oppose Regent Krennic since the death of the Queen seemed to lose more ground with each passing day. Their Charter Mages could do only so much against the Dead and Krennic's forces.

Jyn's own education in Charter Magic had been haphazard at best. She knew some, and she was a strong Charter Mage, but her training left much to be desired.

And now the surviving member of the First Bloodline ran, ran to find the Abhorsen, ran for hope, ran for the slightest chance that they might be able to save the Kingdom.

The Abhorsen, like Jyn, had been hunted by Krennic's forces since the fall, and had gone into hiding as much as Jyn had, but there were still stories and rumors over the years of the Abhorsen appearing, destroying the dead plaguing a particular area, and then vanishing again into the fog. But now, something evidently drew the current Abhorsen to their stronghold for the first time in a decade.

When Saw had heard, just a day after the Separatist's last encounter with the dead, he'd ordered Jyn to go. With the sympathetic gazes of other Separatists surrounding them, Saw had presented her with Petra, a Charter-edged blade that Saw said once belonged to her mother.

So now Jyn ran on, hoping she would make it to the Abhorsen's home in time. 

As the gray light of day grew dimmer, she could sense, and hear, things moving behind her. She shut her green eyes for a moment, sketching charter marks with her fingers in the air and summoned a Charter light. She kept running, light bobbing ahead of her, allowing her to just miss debris as she ran through the churned mud. She supposed she should be grateful it wasn't snowing and she didn't have to trod her way through feet of snow. She knew the weather in this part of the country could see be bad during early spring. She was aware of the cold on her cheeks, her body covered by oil skin and a coat that was now more patches than original fabric anymore.

It grew darker, and she fumbled with the clasps on her belt pouch, bringing homemade toffee to her mouth, chewing as she ran in hopes of giving herself a burst of energy. Even in the gloom of dusk, she could see something rising in the distance, and she could now hear the roaring of a distant waterfall.

Something loped near her, trying to nip at her heels. Some poor animal's body, twisted by the Dead spirit inside, trying to wear her down. She loosed her sword in its sheath, half remembering lessons from Saw, and struck almost blindly as she ran, not daring to look back.

The blade hit something, and something howled in frustration as bespelled metal struck dead flesh.

While most of the river ran sluggishly, the closer she got to the waterfall, the stronger the noise got, the faster the river ran. Soon enough, she was afraid of how she would even manage to cross once she made it to the island that contained Abhorsen's house.

She could see an island in the distance, a building rising in the dark. She shut her eyes a moment, and sprang forward, using the last of her exhausted strength and fear to sprint forward.

She could hear things howling behind her, but now she found herself staring at huge stepping stones, glinting in the darkness, between the edge of the river, and Abhorsen's island. 

Something tried to nip at her again, and she threw herself forward, from stepping stone to stepping stone, until she collapsed on the over side of the river, tiredly lifting her eyes to see dog shaped creatures snarling on the other side of the stepping stones. 

As she turned her head, she found herself in a courtyard, a large series of buildings rising to the south. She tried dragging herself forward, but her strength failed her after a few feet, and she rolled onto her back, wondering what she would do now. She was safe, for the moment, but if there were Dead Hands following, and whatever drove them, they could still build a bridge of grave dirt, and-

"You certainly took your time in getting here," a voice hissed in her ear. 

Through graying vision, Jyn lifted her eyes, and found herself staring at a white cat.

The cat seemed exasperated with her as it regarded her exhausted form. "I suppose I shall have to get the Sendings to take you into the House, since you've exhausted yourself. Humans. The Abhorsen is not here now, but he will be back soon. For now I suppose I must attend to you."

"Who-who are you?" Jyn rasped out.

The cat gave her an annoyed look from emerald green eyes, and she noticed a red leather collar, covered in marks of binding, around it's neck. So...not a cat at all, she thought. "I am Kaytwoso," it...he, informed her. "Servant of the Abhorsen. And you are Jyn Erso, last of the First Blood."

She opened her mouth to snap something back, but instead, felt herself faint, darkness settling on her like a blanket.  
~~~~

Jyn awoke to find herself under crisp linen sheets, feeling warmer than she had in what felt like years. Her green eyes took in the great canopy of the bed. Golden Towers, a symbol she had not seen in years, decorated the canopy. She rose slowly, inch by inch, her body protesting and sore, but not screaming in pain. She felt rested, the last vestiges of sleep slipping from her mind as she noticed the green eyed, white cat resting in an armchair near the bed. He was cleaning himself, looking all the world like a normal cat, though the red leather collar told her otherwise.

"Statistically I predicted you would awake within the next two hours," the cat informed her as it lounged on the chair. "It is nice to see a human actually fall into my calculations for once, though it has been long since I've seen another human but the Abhorsen."

She frowned, her memory conjuring the name of the cat. "Kaytwoso." She remembered making it to the Island, the cat greeting her as if she were a school girl late for dinner, and then fainting in exhaustion.

"The Abhorsen will be pleased you remember me," the cat informed her. He gave a soft mrew of long suffering. "You have slept for over a day, and the Abhorsen has returned home, though you managed to bring quite a trail of Dead with you that he is not pleased about. Still, you are a guest, and the Queen, therefore he requests your presence at dinner. The Sendings shall help you wash and dress."

Jyn was not given the chance to answer, as Kaytwoso vanished through the door, though she wasn't quite sure how. She did not know what manner of creature he was, other than that he was powerful, bound, and evidently served the Abhorsen.

She spent the next hour fighting with Sendings who insisted on treating her like a child, washing her hair for her and trying to scrub her in a tub full of water that smelled faintly of sulfur. Annoyed once she was finally, clean, she fought with another sending who tried to arrange her hair in some delicate plait, and instead pulled it stubbornly into a ponytail. 

She did dress in the fine trousers, soft wool shirt, underthings, and Golden Tower quartered black surcoat they brought her though. Sliding her feet into slippers instead of her worn boots felt odd, but she followed a Sending through the immense house and to the dining hall.

A fire roared in the fireplace, warming the room, along with Charter Marks, as the Sendings set the grand table for three, two human places, and one for she guessed Kaytwoso. 

She only let this distract her a moment before her eyes swung about the room until she saw the man sitting at the head of the table, short, dark brown hair looking as if he'd been running his fingers through it, flipping through what looked like a journal set to the side of the plate and silverware the Sendings were placing before him. He was dressed similarly to her, but his surcoat was dark blue and quartered in Silver Keys, the symbol of the Abhorsen, she remembered.

He was definitely not the woman she remembered, but there was something that felt oddly familiar about him. Her brain flickered through memories, until it came upon one from when she was thirteen, just eight years ago, the night before she'd been sent on a mission with other Separatist soldiers. It was a memory of the old Abhorsen, and someone with her, a tall boy, five years Jyn's senior, with olive skin and dark brown eyes.

When he looked up, Jyn admitted that she stared.

"Cassian?!"

Cassian Andor, formerly Abhorsen in Waiting, now obviously Abhorsen, a man that she'd met once but remembered as stalwart and stubborn from that single evening and brief interaction in camp, now sat before her.

"Jyn." He said her name akin to a prayer.

"Well, I suppose this should not surprise me," came Kaytwoso's sarcastic tone.


End file.
